Benito Mussolini
Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini; (July 29, 1883 – April 28, 1945) was an Italian politician and journalist who was the leader of the National Fascist Party. He ruled Italy as Prime Minister from 1922 to 1943 – constitutionally until 1925, when he dropped the pretense of democracy and established a dictatorship. Known as Il Duce ("The Leader"), Mussolini was the founder of Italian Fascism. In 1912, Mussolini had been a leading member of the National Directorate of the Italian Socialist Party (PSI), but was expelled from the PSI for advocating military intervention in World War I, in opposition to the party's stance on neutrality. Mussolini served in the Royal Italian Army during the war until he was wounded and discharged in 1917. Mussolini denounced the PSI, his views now centering on nationalism instead of socialism and later founded the fascist movement which came to oppose egalitarianism and class conflict, instead advocating revolutionary nationalism transcending class lines. Following the March on Rome in October 1922, Mussolini became the youngest Prime Minister in Italian history until the appointment of Matteo Renzi in February 2014. After removing all political opposition through his secret police and outlawing labor strikes, Mussolini and his followers consolidated their power through a series of laws that transformed the nation into a one-party dictatorship. Within five years, Mussolini had established dictatorial authority by both legal and extraordinary means and aspired to create a totalitarian state. Mussolini remained in power until he was deposed by King Victor Emmanuel III in 1943, but a few months later he became the leader of the Italian Social Republic, a German client regime in northern Italy – Mussolini held this post until his death in 1945. Mussolini had sought to delay a major war in Europe until at least 1942, but Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. This resulted in declarations of war by France and the UK and the start of World War II. On June 10, 1940—with the Fall of France imminent—Italy officially entered the war on the side of Germany, though he was aware that Italy did not have the military capacity and resources to carry out a long war with the British Empire. Mussolini believed that after the imminent French armistice, Italy could gain territorial concessions from France and then he could concentrate his forces on a major offensive in North Africa, where British and Commonwealth forces were outnumbered by Italian forces. However, the British government refused to accept proposals for a peace that would involve accepting Axis victories in Eastern and Western Europe; plans for an invasion of the UK did not proceed and the war continued. In the summer of 1941, Mussolini sent Italian forces to participate in the invasion of the Soviet Union and Italy declared war on the United States in December. In 1943, Italy suffered one disaster after another: by February the Red Army had completely destroyed the Italian Army in Russia (ARMIR), May saw the collapse of the Axis in North Africa, on July 9 the Allies invaded Sicily, and by the 16th it became clear the German summer offensive in the USSR had failed. As a consequence, early on July 25, the Grand Council of Fascism passed a motion of no confidence for Mussolini; later that day the King dismissed him as head of government and had him placed in custody. On September 12, 1943, Mussolini was rescued from captivity in the Gran Sasso raid by German paratroopers and Waffen-SS commandos led by Major Otto-Harald Mors. Adolf Hitler, after meeting with the rescued former dictator, then put Mussolini in charge of a puppet regime in northern Italy, the Italian Social Republic, informally known as the Salò Republic. In late April 1945, in the wake of near total defeat, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci attempted to flee to Switzerland, but both were captured by Italian communist partisans and summarily executed by firing squad on April 28, 1945 near Lake Como. His body was then taken to Milan, where it was hung upside down at a service station to publicly confirm his demise. Quotes * Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power. * Democracy is beautiful in theory; in practice it is a fallacy. You in America will see that some day. * War is to man what maternity is to a woman. From a philosophical and doctrinal viewpoint, I do not believe in perpetual peace. * War alone brings up to their highest tension all human energies and imposes the stamp of nobility upon the peoples who have the courage to make it. * Let us have a dagger between our teeth, a bomb in our hands, and an infinite scorn in our hearts. * Fascism is a religion. The twentieth century will be known in history as the century of Fascism. * The truth is that men are tired of liberty. * Socialism is a fraud, a comedy, a phantom, a blackmail. * The League is very well when sparrows shout, but no good at all when eagles fall out. * It's good to trust others but, not to do so is much better. Category:World War 2